Can play really make us healthier people? Some researchers believe there's proof in the power of play.

Dr. Stuart Brown's California office has a 30-feet-tall treehouse, lots of color and plenty of sunlight -- an appropriate space for the founder of the National Institute for Play. He and most New Orleanians would seem to have a lot in common. We like to do things that are so much fun -- such as Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest -- we want to do them over and over.

"Play is something that is done for its own sake," says Brown, a psychiatrist and clinical researcher. "It takes one out of time, it is done voluntarily, it can be interrupted so it's not compulsive. And you want to do it again."

It has been more than 40 years since Brown had his a-ha moment about play's often-profound impact on mental and physical health.

Working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 1966, Brown was asked to analyze University of Texas student Charles Joseph Whitman, the infamous "tower sniper" who fatally shot 14 people and wounded 32 others.

Brown's most important discovery? Whitman had grown up in a home so structured there was no time allowed for play.

From that extreme case, Brown's research on play snowballed into sociological and biological inquiries into the connection of fun to human development, work and interpersonal relationships. He compiled some 6,000 "play histories" of people from all walks of life, from serial killers to Nobel Prize winners.

Speaking from his Carmel Valley office, Brown said he tires of being asked to define play when it's all around us -- on display here, for example, in the delight on the face of a parade-goer about to catch a prized doubloon, or in the dance of the second-liner moved only by the rhythm of music, or in the sheer delight in a dog's prance as he pounds the levee with another canine pal.

"Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul" by M.D., Stuart Brown, Christopher Vaughan.

WHAT'S YOUR PLAY PERSONALITY?

•The Joker: The play revolves around nonsense. The category includes parents who use baby talk with and make silly sounds for their children, and adults who start out as class clowns and become practical jokers.
•The Kinesthete: The athlete, dancer, walker -- anyone who likes to play physical games.
•The Explorer: One who likes going to new places, searching for new feelings or reaching new mental heights through study.
•The Competitor: This is the person who likes games and winning -- the fun of being the top person in the group. The competitor also can play well solo, such as with video games.
•The Director: You like to organize, plan, give parties, organize beach trips. You are the Auntie Mame of your social circle.
•The Artist/Creator: You find delight in making things, whether they're beautiful, functional or just something wonderfully goofy.
•The Storyteller: Imagination is your sandbox. You may be playing tennis with a friend, but in your mind you are Roger Federer. Excitement and performance are the mission, even if you are doing something as basic as cooking or reading. You become part of the story.

Source: Dr. Stuart Brown, founder, National Institute for Play

But despite its ubiquity, Brown says, play can be very specific.

"Sometimes running is play; sometimes it is not. What is the difference between the two?" he asks and answers in his book "Play: How It Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul" (Avery, $24.95). "It really depends on the emotions experienced by the runner. Play is a state of mind, rather than an activity."

A local example of that state of mind might be found at the annual 24-hour Draw-a-thon benefiting the Green Project, where a sense of play is created when both children and adults draw all over walls and floors and ceilings.

"They even spill into the gallery where local artists present their work, turning the entire event into a playground of expression. It becomes a collaborative canvas," says Susan Gisleson, the event coordinator of Press Street, the literary and visual art collective that organizes the event at the Green Project's Faubourg Marigny warehouse. "An artist is anyone who walks through the door. No one is being critical or judgmental. It's a very open creative environment."

Gisleson recalls a trek to the railroad tracks adjacent to the Green Project to gather twigs and stones for a project three years ago, when the Draw-a-Thon began. It was just after sunrise, the event had just begun and members of the National Guard, who were then still patrolling the city, pulled up to the place in a Hummer and asked if they could help. Gisleson explained that she was searching the ground for materials for the art playground inside.

"One guy was in shades and had an assault rifle. He said, 'I like to draw,'" Gisleson recalled.

"Come on in," she said, and he drew two hands holding a flower.

"Everyone at some point has doodled outside the margins," she says.

But even those who may have been denied specific rites of frivolous passage in childhood can claim the benefits of play today. Brown suggests that you start by recalling your personal play history from childhood.

"Go back in your memory, be as specific as possible and regain that mental experience that was pure play and joyfulness," he says. "As you review that, add feeling to your visualization. Then imagine how to link that experience to your current life."

It's important to remember that it's never too late to experience play and incorporate it into your life, Brown adds.

"If you had a childhood devoid of play, and you can't get in touch with a memory of play, get into the physical part of play," he says.

Moving to the rhythm of music can be a start. "I go to a modern church where we have jazz musicians who often play such songs as 'When the Saints Go Marching In,'" he says. "We can't help but move to the music."

Or read funny books, or watch comedies. We can access play all around us, he says.

Brown's book also says that animals can teach us to play, illustrating the point with the playful interaction of a sled dog and a lone polar bear captured in photographs.

And although animals are the best exemplars of playfulness (which explains why chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall is on the board of directors of the National Institute for Play), humans, too, have distinctive play personalities -- eight of them, to be exact (see box).

Whatever one's style, Brown says, play is not a guilty pleasure, but one of our best survival tools.